Poet and professor Michael McFee talks about the similarities between writing poetry and sharing food. From the Spring 2015 Food Issue, he also reads “Cast-Iron Gahzal” (the latter being a style of poem aptly pronounced “guzzle”).
Loose Leaf joined historian Scott Huffard at the Bostian’s Bridge trestle near Statesville, NC, to discuss a train wreck from 1891. Huffard penned an article on that accident for the Summer 2014 issue of Southern Cultures, discussing southerners’ fears about increased mobility with the expansion of railways in the region. As Huffard wrote, “When train number nine on the Western North Carolina Railroad tumbled off Bostian’s Bridge in 1891, it ignited a media frenzy, as well as a …
Loose Leaf recently caught up with Elisabeth Haviland James, director of 2013’s “In So Many Words.” The film follows Lucy Daniels, daughter of a prominent Raleigh family who was hospitalized for anorexia in her early life before becoming a lauded writer and psychologist. Here, James talks about portraying Daniels’s story—or any story—in film, observing that blurring the line between fiction and documentary is “just fine with me, because I think that distinction is a little outdated anyway. We’re all …
To complement our Spring 2014 issue on the controversial bestselling book and film The Help, we caught up with Azie Dungey, creator and star of “Ask A Slave.” The web series is based on real interactions Dungey had while portraying a slave character at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In our second conversation with Dungey, she discusses the value of telling one’s own story.
To complement our Spring 2014 issue on the controversial bestselling book and film The Help, we caught up with Azie Dungey, creator and star of “Ask A Slave.” The web series is based on real interactions Dungey had while portraying a slave character at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Here, Dungey discusses what it is like to engage with historic narratives.
Our Spring 2014 issue examined the controversial bestselling book and film The Help. Now for Loose Leaf, we take a look back at representations of “the help” in popular media.
For our January feature, civil rights pioneer and legislator Julian Bond recalls his career in teaching and the role of ordinary people in carrying a movement: “Young people need to know that people like themselves did this. It wasn’t always these magical figures like Dr. King. So that’s the way I developed my lectures, and that’s the way I teach my lectures now.”
Our January installment features founding editor emeritus John Shelton Reed. The co-author of Holy Smoke recently barbecued a halal goat under the (delicious) guise of research for his forthcoming book from UNC Press.
Our Winter 2013 issue features an essay by NCMA curator John W. Coffey on the curious provenance of a bust of John C. Calhoun. Marred during the Civil War, the bust was originally covered with cosmetics before being displayed at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Here, Coffey and NCMA conservator Bill Brown discuss their decision to remove the make-up for display and privilege one aspect of the bust’s story.
For our Fall 2013 issue, Remembering the Civil War, historian Blain Roberts wrote about attending Charleston’s secession gala and NAACP protest of it in 2010. Here, she discusses how the events of 150 years ago are not merely relegated to history—they resonate in a contemporary political climate. As Roberts observes, “Nostalgia is not about the past.”